Informed he has terminal cancer, an underachieving chemistry genius turned high school teacher uses his expertise to secretly provide for his family by producing the world's highest quality crystal meth.

Breaking Bad is probably my favourite TV show. I don't really watch a whole lot of TV shows because it's such a pain to catch every episode in sequence but the premise of this one was enough to capture my attention. It has all the tension and twists of 24 but with much more believable characters, solid writing and a protagonist that is even shadier than Jack Bauer. I don't think it is even on any form of Australian TV so I suggest you get a US friend to send episodes to you.

24 had no real twists. It was always predictable. Typical season layout:

Eps 1-8: Arab plot against something, using nuclear|biological|chemical weapons
Eps 9-16: Bauer catches them but finds out it was actually the Russians who were behind them.
Eps 17-24: Bauer catches them and finds out it was actually the Chinese behind the Russians.

Any episode that is not #8, 16 or 24 has no significant developments, and is usually a case of the bad guys getting away in an incredibly complicated and preorganised escape that was somehow put in place as Plan #5 somehow days in advance when they couldn't have even predicted Plans 1-4 would have been foiled by Bauer.

Breaking Bad is not even comparable - it's much more clever in every way and the characters have significant depth and personality to them.

Breaking Bad got frustrating. I don't consider it clever, it is just your standard melodrama, and the characters don't really grow in anyway. Compare that to Mad Men - where the characters grow each season. For a continuing serial, and not restarted season by season such as 24, Breaking Bad hasn't done much with its story imo.

wife and i were just saying today that since we've finished this and GoT there's just nothing out there that grabs our interest so much that we are hanging for the next ep.

we've got s*** loads of your basic range, 30 Rock, Mad Men, Community, The Tudors, Fringe, Walking Dead, and many more, so we cover the full range from comedy to drama.

but i have yet to find anything as addictive as BB, GoT, and Dexter. these are my top 3 for "f*** hurry up next ep" or if, as in most cases we have the whole season, that i can watch 2, 3, 4 eps in a session.

if anyone has any ideas for something that grabs you like BB or the others let me know.

if anyone has any ideas for something that grabs you like BB or the others let me know.

Homeland for me was like that, I'm really looking forward to the second season of that starting.

I liked Breaking Bad for the first three seasons or so, but it feels like nothing was really changing and it was just repeating the same plot points over and over. I got a bit sick of it and still haven't finished the last season yet. I'll probably grab the new season anyway and catch up with it at some point, but its certainly not in my must-watch category anymore.

Hell on Wheels http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1699748/ which is pretty good
Falling Skies Season 2 - which is ok
Mad men - great but not addictive like i can't wait for the next ep
30 Rock - just started, same as above
and waiting on Walking Dead next season

and the episode in season 3 with the fly in the lab... that was just painful

That episode, whilst slow was brilliant, it summed up what was going on in the season brilliantly. IMO its the best episode in a tv series ever. So much thought and direction was put into it. F*** s*** that went on in that episode has had a direct effect on so much that came afterwards, it was just great.

I think you guys should probably watch it again, you're way over-glorifying it I've just watched seasons 1-3 back to back and that episode was terrible (had just watched it a few hours before seeing this thread), and it did not:

- contain noteworthy character development - sum up anything that wasn't already blatantly apparent - exhibit anything special in terms of thought and direction, all embellishing aside

I watched it all probably about a month and a bit ago and the more I think about it the more I like it. I guess I am just a total sucker for stories where the protagonist slowly becomes the antagonist.

I watched seasons 1-4 back to back about 3 weeks ago and i really enjoyed it and that fly episode stands out to me and it was a slow moving episode but i quite enjoyed it, it was very subtle. A lot of people don't pick up subtle on TV/movies.

maybe walt and jesse can have more arguments, and jesse could call walt a b**** yo I think that could make for some very subtle character development

Just guessing because I know how much people <3 that s***.... Walt will probably die. The people that recently watched all the seasons again will remember, Walter was told he had only bought some time for himself not that he was cured, Best guess is he dies. But meh could be 100000% wrong for all I know

But yeah I'm excited, Last season was terrific and If they end this on a high note it will go on my top list of shows!

Homeland for me was like that, I'm really looking forward to the second season of that starting.I liked Breaking Bad for the first three seasons or so, but it feels like nothing was really changing and it was just repeating the same plot points over and over. I got a bit sick of it and still haven't finished the last season yet. I'll probably grab the new season anyway and catch up with it at some point, but its certainly not in my must-watch category anymore.

Yeah same with me. BB was good up until Season 3 for me. The last reason really just so boring until about the end. Kinda like Dexter and Burn Notice.... am really starting to lose the interest in these shows.

how can they continue it though.. i thought he cornered the meth market and elleminated all his compition..

I just finished reading through this article, doesn't give away too much but gives you a good indication of what to expect from season 5.

Isn't Walt in remission?

He is. In an interview with Cranston a while back, he said the only was the show can end is for Walt to die, he made mention of the cancer returning at some point in the story arc but basically left it at that. Whether it's the cancer that ends up taking him down, or the DEA, Hank, or hell maybe Walt Jr will be his demise :), time will tell but one things for sure, things are gearing up for one of the most epic endings to one of the greatest shows of all time.

He is. In an interview with Cranston a while back, he said the only was the show can end is for Walt to die, he made mention of the cancer returning at some point in the story arc but basically left it at that. Whether it's the cancer that ends up taking him down, or the DEA, Hank, or hell maybe Walt Jr will be his demise :), time will tell but one things for sure, things are gearing up for one of the most epic endings to one of the greatest shows of all time.

The show can end In maybe 2-3 legit ways that I can see ATPIT, But as the show goes on into the fifth season I'm sure more ways will unravel, But easily will go down In my top 5 shows (when I make the list :P)

Plausible ending: They do a mailout on a global scale with a free sample just like with tea and everybody dances into the night and the curtain falls! No more product for me I think. Also, plus 1 fly ep rawked. :)

Good Episode, Jumped Straight Into it. I like how Mike Is actually showing some kind of personality and having his opinion in the mix instead of having Gus pull his strings constantly. Keen to see how it unfolds!

This season has been really good apart from Skylar. Last season it was Jesse being an annoying mopey, self-pitying b**** who can't deal, and now its Skylar. Why do they feel the need to keep doing that to their characters, so annoying to watch.

As bad as Skylar is her behaviour is totally justified in this season. Walt has been a c*** for a long time now but he has really hit full stride in the last few episodes. C**** in TV shows are usually my favourite type of characters, and often I find myself wanting them to succeed despite their c***ingness which has been the case with Walt. However that all changed in the last episode where he refused to pay Jessie his rightly dues (after emotionally blackmailing him for so long) and KILLING F*****G MIKE. Plus he has openly stated that he doesn't give a f*** about his family anymore and only cares about his drug empire. He is now a c*** I want to see fail.

And how f*****g psycho is Todd? I hope the significance of him keeping the spider wasn't lost on anyone.

edit: why aren't spoiler tags working?

Predictions: he wants those 9 names so I suppose he is going to go on a killing spree which will be pretty cool. Some of the men Mike dealt with would have no doubt been just as hard as him, and I reckon one will end up being the next big rival for Walt in next years season. Walt will be forced to use that disappear guy Saul knows, which the opening scene of the first episode alluded too when he made a mushroom cloud out of bacon, had a fake id, and bought a light machine gun. There is obviously a big showdown on the cards and it would have to be against a rival and not the cops because as crazy and psychopathic as Walt is I doubt he would start killing policemen. He'd kill himself before that.

It's hard to see how the whole Hank thing will play out from here though. Maybe it will be a race for Walt to kill the 9 guys before the police can get to them. One thing is for certain though, Hank will be f*****g PISSED when he finds out Walt is Heisenberg. Hell, maybe it will be Hank who kills Walt in the end. He has flown of the handle a few times already.

I actually really liked it. He died in peace which is a luxury rarely afforded to people in his profession. He also paid for a life of crime by not being able to see his granddaughter grow up.

Plus I am sure some of the shots of the river were taken directly from the scene in No Country For Old Men where Brolin swims across the river to escape the dog. I might do a compare on that actually... brb :P

However that all changed in the last episode where he refused to pay Jessie his rightly dues (after emotionally blackmailing him for so long) and KILLING F*****G MIKE. Plus he has openly stated that he doesn't give a f*** about his family anymore and only cares about his drug empire. He is now a c*** I want to see fail.

this happened for me somewhere in the first or second season and after that discussion about the fly episode, I later realised I hated it so much cos it featured so much of walt self-indulgently waffling on and I can't stand his character or any scene where he gets to say much more than a few words